44 Love

What I enjoy the most (being from the south too) is listening to good southern rock music. 44 Love is a fantastic southern rock band that knows how to get down. Their sound, colorful lyrics, and overall southern style are the perfect mixture. If you want to hear music full of soulful southern charm with a rock kick to it, then 44 Love is the band for you. Get ready for an exciting musical ride that is aimed to please when you are listening to 44 Love. In this spotlight with our Webzine, we get to know the band better and learn what they are hoping to achieve with their music career. Enjoy!

Isaac: 2010 has been an amazing year so far for Junior’s Cave. What are you most thankful for in 2010 so far?

44 Love: Aside from good health, we are really thankful to have released our debut CD, "The Road to Alabama" and to be a part of a band with good creative chemistry.

Isaac: Who were your major influences that helped influenced you to want to pursue music as a career?

44 Love: Our friends and family have been very encouraging and most are huge music fans. In addition to that, we have really been inspired by the independent music scene in the south. Throughout our lives, we have all been going to venues that support live music and seeing independent bands. Venues such as Winston-Salem's "Garage" and "Ziggy's" have always catered to local and regional artists with diverse backgrounds. As we got older and ventured out to the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, the Orange Peel in Asheville, we realized that we could be a part of the NC music scene. Having those experiences showed us that we could create music, play it live, and the music would find an audience. Musically, we would say our current major influences are the Drive By Truckers and Drivin' and Cryin'.

Isaac: Describe the biggest highlight you have achieved so far with your career and why this moment is/was important to you?

44 Love: Collectively, playing the Garage in Winston-Salem with independent artists such as Southern Bitch, Ned Van Go, Jason Isbell, Two Cow Garage, and Stephen Simmons have been our biggest highlights. These bands are incredibly different and we find ourselves influenced by the people that we have had the privilege of playing with. Ultimately, these experiences encouraged us to work on our own style of music, create a record, and release it. Also, getting to know the local Winston-Salem artists and networking with them has been great.

Isaac: What has been some of the negative aspects about the music industry you have experienced that you would like to warn others about?

44 Love: As a new independent band, we have noticed that it can be difficult getting gigs, even at venues that support live music. Some venues are unwilling to book a new band without an established following. While this is frustrating, we do recognize what the clubs are up against. Our best success has been from networking with other bands and doing "home/home" shows at our respective home-town clubs. We have also seen some clubs that want you to pay them (pay for play). We avoid those situations because we can use our resources in a better way.

Isaac: Brief history about your background plus the style of music you play.

44 Love: The band members all grew up in rural NC and have spent most of our lives in the South. We have always been big fans of guitar rock. We formed in 2007 and we honestly started out just getting together and playing covers of the music we liked (pretty much like most bands, we think). But, just after a few weeks, we had about seven songs each band member continued to bring in riffs, chord structures, and lyrics that eventually morphed into the Road to Alabama. It is kind of funny, because initially, we don't think we set out on a mission to do that. We were just four guys who loved playing music. In March 2007, we got a call from Richard Emmett, the owner of the Garage in Winston-Salem. He asked us if we wanted a gig with a band called Southern Bitch (formally out of Athens, GA). One of us had seen them open for Drive By Truckers at the 40 Watt Club in Athens...they were great. After taking that show, we were incredibly driven to write and play live. Stylistically, we would say we are a rock band influenced by a diverse group of southern rock bands...we realized we could have said southern rock, but sometimes people just equate that to Skynyrd (and we guess, ultimately, there is nothing wrong with that).

Isaac: Great Story!

Isaac: How easy is it to gets gigs for you as an artist? What is the live music scene like in your area?

44 Love: As we network with other bands and market the CD, things have gotten easier to get gigs, but it still can be challenging from time to time in new cities. We would say that Winston-Salem's music scene is definitely growing and is one of the best in the state. Winston-Salem is home to Doug Davis and the Solid Citizens, Caleb Caudle and the Bayonets, Jerry Chapman, Mitchell Snow and the Beaumont Brothers, Lee and Susan Terry, the Bo Stevens Band, and several other diverse musical styles. The Garage also attracts a ton of regional artists (some mentioned earlier) that help connect local bands to the Winston-Salem scene. Raleigh and Chapel Hill also have two of our favorite indie bands, the Old Ceremony and Hearts and Daggers.

Isaac: What do you think of the state of Indie music at the moment? Do you listen to radio much at all? Has the Internet helped music grow or hindered it in your opinion?

44 Love: We think the music being produced by independent artists these days is some of the best we have heard in a long time. For us, there is nothing like discovering new music and bands you have never heard of either online or by attending show at a small club or venue. Let's put it this way, there are certain CDs from commercially successful bands that some of us will buy no matter what (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as an example), but most of us typically don't listen to the radio to discover new bands. Internet radio resources like Pandora are great and we think the internet has only helped independent artists. For our band specifically, we have used the internet to get CDs into markets that we normally would be unable to visit. When we sold our first CDs online in Europe, we knew it was a good thing. The Internet is the best grass-roots tool an indie artist has these days.

Isaac: If you could just perform and play music for the rest of your life but never become a household name, would you be happy (why or why not)?

44 Love: In a word, yes. For our band, it has never been about commercial success (although, some of that would be nice). Creating music, playing it live, and having it connect with an audience is really the best thing about it.

Isaac: If you could create a fantasy band - what would be the line-up and why?

44 Love: This is the hardest question anyone has ever asked...any combination of the following bands/artists would be a stellar line-up: Kevin Kinney, Drive-By Truckers, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Gram Parsons, Wilco. It's hard to avoid a typically music cliché here, but all of those bands pretty much made their own music and rules...that's Rock'n'Roll.

Isaac: Do you feel that your family and friends have been supportive of you?

44 Love: Incredibly. We could not have pulled this off without the support of our friends and family. The balance of constructive criticism and support from our closest friends/family has definitely made us a better band. We when knock something out of the park, they tell us. When we screw something up, they tell us. We cannot list them all here, but there is a group of about 50 people that we will always love and respect for the support they have shown us.

Isaac: How hard is it to manage family, work, and everything else life sends your way with pursing music?

44 Love: Life is tough. There are so many obligations that people have to jobs, friends, family, and the daily grind. Fortunately for us, creating music and playing it live is not a chore, but a tremendous outlet.

Isaac: What CDs do you currently have available and where can they be purchased from?

44 Love: The band's debut record, "The Road to Alabama" can be purchased

at www.cdbaby.com,www.amazon.com, www.itunes.com.

Isaac: Where can fans access your music, videos, blogs, and anything else about you online?

44 Love: Keep up with the band on Facebook and http://44love.embarqspace.com. (New website is under construction).

Isaac: Message to your fans?

44 Love: Thank you and keep supporting live music.
- Junior's Cave Online Magazine

Like a muscle car skidding up the pavement, a good road album leaves indelible marks on the mind of the listener. The Road to Alabama, the debut from Winston-Salem's 44 Love, has elements that would make it a fine travel companion on those rough back roads of the rural South.

Guitarists Bart Watts and Jordan Smith, bassist Levi Ashby and drummer Jason James crank out high-octane songs about ramblin', haulin', burnin', ragin' and shootin' -- but not necessarily in that order.

What sparks this restlessness? Perhaps it's a desire to avoid emotional stagnancy ("Blue Train") or commitment ("Road to Alabama").

Or maybe it's anger and vengeance. "I've Come to Kill You," "The Devil Can Wait" and "Everyone Knows" are straight-up revenge songs, fueled by raging guitar and piston-pounding rhythm.

Without offering any apologies, "The Burning Tree" examines the consequences of the too-fast-for-love lifestyle. Sure, dropping "a match into the devil's urn" yields a fantastic flame that burns out quickly, but it's certainly going to get a lot of attention.

The boys' road-warrior ethos sometimes comes across as arrogant, and that's a good thing. In the hostile world of cocked hammers and smoking tires, you've got to live by your own set of rules. On "44 Love," a warning is issued to those who would challenge this survival strategy: "If you want trouble, look my way!"

The focus of Road is narrow. But sheer energy saves these songs from redundancy. There's enough gas in the tank to get to hell and back.

The album can be downloaded from several online retailers, including www.amazon.com and cdbaby.com. For more information, visit www.44love.net.
- Winston-Salem Journal

44 Love have a great combination of sounds and themes on their album, “The Road to Alabama”. This is a rock band with southern roots, country style and great stories. They are a little unexpected and that is always a nice thing in music. All of their songs are good, but a few favorites are: ‘Turbo Brown’ and ‘Road to Alabama’. I love the guitar on this one! Definitely worth checking these guys out. - I Am Entertainment (IAE) Magazine

(TRANSLATED FROM DUTCH) First of all this, do not confuse this with Love 44 44 Long. The latter band is excellent and catchy rootspop comes from Portland, Oregon. 44 This Love comes from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And they sound quite different. The Road to Alabama (house) is a pounding ride with stiff suspension. Bassist Levi Ashby is the lead singer of the bunch and has a typical roots rock voice. If he smoked too much. Maybe it would perhaps of The Bottle Rockets maybe, but it is not. 44 Love, alongside Ashby further comprises Bart Watts (guitar), Jordan Smith (guitars) and Jason James (drums), wrote all the songs themselves. The song The Burning Tree is actually quite reminiscent of the band with the same name. For those not familiar with that group, that was the group of guitarist Marc Ford before it switched to The Black Crowes. In a sense we are talking about blues, but without all the cliches. The guitar work I've Come To Kill You "floats like a trapeze artist toiling above the base." Almost hard rock, but again without the cliches. The Devil Can Wait by rumbles like a bulldozer, and it brought me to the record collection, which I grabbed for Reptiles, Dogs of Lust And The Iguanas. Not the roots rockers from New Orleans, not the first band that accompanied Iggy Pop, but an obscure band influenced by The Stooges from Kansas who made several LPs for Midnight Records. Enough about others, back to 44 Love. The Road to Alabama for the whole journey will captivate. This is roots rock that sounds like an abandoned factory. You can wander around carefree, sometimes you kick against a piece of wood or a nut. Great feeling. And sorry, still just another band name, I simply can not resist. This beautiful album makes me very strongly reminiscent of Underworld Nation, that Something On The TV also already long ago made a very strong album. Also once again running. But first a few times still The Road to Alabama accountable. Available at CD Baby. - John Gjaltema - www.altcountry.nl

(TRANSLATED FROM ITALIAN) Incandescent matter by a rock-solid quartet formed in 2007 in North Carolina, not channeled into paths required on board the Blue Train will bring boots and blue jeans but do not want to go home, headed to Texas and do not want it, rock and roots mixed with fiery guitars wisely. Write about good and bad times, but all that stands in the middle, including the love (or for a person, place or a cheap gun ... - www.cheapo.it

(TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN) Welcome on "The Road to Alabama! Great debut of the quartet, founded in 2007 from the area of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Irgedwie the title of the album does indeed have an idea what these troops will play well - and it is then: Knotless Southern Rock! Well, we specify it a little more time and call it guitar-dominated rock with a decent shot Roots-/Southern Blues and Country, but with the emphasis clearly is on "southern". What is crucial: 44 Love to play this "Mugge" wonderfully carefree, glorious unpolished, rough, sometimes even a little rough (which fits easily on this band and everything but a negation) is very powerful and alive, no frills, with much pathos and heart, but produce very smoothly, harmoniously and sometimes very melodic. And: 44 Love do that great! The great Southern rock heroes such as Lynyrd Skynyrd , the Outlaws , Molly Hatchet and The Allman Brothers Band , the band, which is clearly audible, most inspired, but also the early Bottle Rockets and the Drive-By Truckers left here and there their tracks. Nevertheless draw 44 Love unconcerned by their own thing. Is determined primarily by the wonderfully dirty sound of the magnificent set, rich electric guitars. Above all, the excellent lead guitarist Jordan Smith delighted with beautiful, fluid and flowing, while but very spicy, rousing, dirty, conjured up from the wrist, lively solos (the Southern Rock Guitar Guard of the variety Toy Cakdwell, Hughie Thomassen, Allen Collins, Ed King & Co. seems omnipresent). His legs are great, as is the entire song, mostly fine ear. The necessary power, which needs it, is formed by the massive, angular, rough riffs of the second guitarist Bart Watts, who thus sets the play of his partner more effectively in scene. Thus, an orderly Gitarren-/Southern-Feuer blazing. The adequate rhythm section to drummer and bassist Jason James, Levi Ashby will do the rest. The latter is also the lead singer of the band. A man with an almost predestined for this music, great voice, which he both moderate right, but can also use fervently southern - always with the right amount of emotion-rocking in his presentation. The opener of the album, "Blue Train" will start immediately with a wonderfully loose, right between Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Outlaws settled guitar riff. Effective immediately very familiar and yet so fresh, even if "Sweet Home Alabama" is not that far away. The ever-hungry Southern Rock community longs so really for such sounds - and it is well served. After about half a minute's is clearly a rough, tough and edgy. Powerful, pumping bass, drums markannt blaring, lots of bite! And then again this grandiose, though earthy, red-hot, but still very loose, nimble lead guitar runs. To the vocal tour de force of front man Levi Ashby. Class! A very strong, "Pure Southern Rock" season opener! Still rough, straighter, and with a lot of steam riffiger the subsequent title track comes from the speakers' gebrettert. Roll like a heavy truck along the "Road to Alabama. Class here the underlying organ and piano for the supporting fat guitars. Then the dream "Maybe": What a wonderfully melodic, crisp, powerful and yet completely relaxed, liquid Roots-/Southern-/Countryrocker. Would have on any early work of the Outlaws and The Marshall Tucker Band occupied a place of honor. Goes down as oil and glorious in his ear! Jordan Smith's vital, nimble and highly virtuosic "deep southern 'guitar solo is stunning. A husky number - almost half the rent alone for the complete album. But this is of course "nonsense" because the band does have a lot of other erstklassoger numbers to offer. For example, the boiling roots / guitar rocker "The burning tree", the uncompromising furrows through the fields of the South draws his (quite a bit reminiscent of the same name, the former band of the later The Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford ), the somewhat gloomy and Wüsten-/Ghost Town-/Roots-/Southern psychedelic rocker "I've come to kill you", the fast, burning some guitars of "The Devil Can Wait" (rough Drive-By Truckers can greet), the furious full steam rocker "Gasoline" with its hot, feverish Lead guitar, dybamische, a little of the Bottle Rockets memoire, rootsy, dirty "Turbo Brown", or the magnificent, flawless Southern rocker "Everyone Knows" with its straight, fat riffs and the rousing guitar runs (starts behaving very first, but the end is screaming Ashby, Southern rock and soul from the neck). "44 Love rocks the south!" This is the maxim - and implement them consistently! A great rock album Gitarrenrock-/Rootsrock-/Southern - independent, careless, dirty, rough, away from any commercial pressures. Once again: Welcome on "The Road to Alabama ...





- Bärchen Records

(TRANSLATED FROM DUTCH) 44 Love from North Carolina founded in 2007. A band consisting of Bart Watts (guitar), Jason James (drums), Jordan Smith (electric guitar), Levi Ashby (bass and vocals) with subtle addition of Doug Davis (organ). With the debut "The Road to Alabama," the quartet lays the emphasis on raw sixties and seventies rock. The tight guitar riffs and sometimes bordering on madness vocals make this album a moving train. The guitars are plugged in and put the amps on ten. Furious we hear the band in the steamy opening number Blue Train. Without slowing down the rhetoric we keep smoking guitar sounds and forty minutes to beat. Songs such as Gasoline, Burning Tree, The Devil Can’t Wait and Turbo Brown sound good, vulgar and carefully constructed. Lyrically the songs are about the good times, ("My Turn") and bad (I've Come to Kill You ") of contemporary life. The album 'The Road to Alabama' means a combination of southern rock and rock and roll, we can describe as heavy Americana. Numbers reminiscent of the guitar rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Drive-By Truckers and Masters of Reality, 44 Love presents us with a plate that is completely finished. The tight guitar riffs and sometimes bordering on madness vocals make this album a moving train. The guitars are plugged in and put the amps on ten. Furious we hear the band in the steamy opening number Blue Train. Without slowing down the rhetoric we keep smoking guitar sounds and forty minutes to beat. Songs such as Gasoline, Burning Tree, The Devil Can’t Wait and Turbo Brown sound good, vulgar and carefully constructed. Lyrically the songs are about the good times, (My Turn) and bad (I've Come to Kill You ") of contemporary life. The album 'The Road to Alabama' means a combination of southern rock and rock and roll, we can describe as heavy Americana. Numbers reminiscent of the guitar rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Drive-By Truckers and Masters of Reality, 44 Love presents us with a plate that is completely finished. 'The Road to Alabama' is more than thirty years of rock history on a large lot. - Johan Schoenmakers - www.altcountryforum.nl